San Angelo Man Sentenced to 30 Years for Aggravated Assault

San Angelo man Elias Bihl was found guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon Tuesday afternoon, following two days of trial and testimony in Judge Weatherby’s 340th District Court. Bihl was sentenced to 30 years confinement.

The jury returned the guilty verdict at 2:14 p.m., approximately 45 minutes after the judge had read their instructions and sent the jury off to the jury room to deliberate.

Following a short break, the prosecution and defense attorneys returned to present new evidence in the punishment phase of the trial prior to sentencing, at which point the defense began by bringing to light Bihl’s previous felony convictions.

Bihl pleaded true to the three convictions listed, which included possession of marijuana between 5 and 50 pounds, a second-degree felony; a tax stamp violation, a third-degree felony; and obstruction or retaliation, a second-degree felony.

After the prosecution had read the enhancements, defense attorney Nathan Butler called Bihl’s father and stepmother to the witness stand as character witnesses. Salvador Bihl spoke first and described his son, who lived with him up until the age of 5, as “a good kid. He used to follow me around everywhere.”

Salvador Bihl said when he divorced his wife in 1982, Elias went to live with his mother, where he was exposed to “drugs and junk”. Both he and his wife Gloria stated that Elias was doing well after his release from prison on the obstruction charge in 2010, until the aggravated assault incident(s) in 2013. In 2010, Bihl was sentenced to three years in prison. His parents said he had been working hard for an oil company and had been gradually paying off child support owed for his three sons.

As his father and stepmother spoke, Bihl scribbled absently on a sheet of legal paper in front of him, averting his eyes and occasionally dabbing them with a wadded up tissue. His parents pleaded with the jury to give him the minimum of 25 years. The jury retired while the judge wrote the charge.

Having read it to the jury some minutes later, the jury once again went into deliberation. In only 10 minutes the verdict had returned and the jury was ready for sentencing. Elias Bihl was sentenced to 30 years confinement.

On the basis of prior convictions—not least the three from January this year where a court found Bihl guilty on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm—Assistant District Attorney Jason Ferguson filed a motion with the court to cumulate Bihl’s sentencing.

Bihl’s most recent convictions stem from an incident in February of 2013 in which he shot Armando Juarez and Henry Fitchett Jr. in a San Angelo apartment. Bihl was sentenced to 25 years for each count of aggravated assault and two years for the firearm. He is currently serving all of those sentences, which run concurrently. He has filed to appeal all three charges.

Judge Weatherby decided to uphold Ferguson’s request on Tuesday, meaning that Bihl’s sentence of 30 years will begin at the end of the 25 he is facing now. His attorney announced at the end of the trial Tuesday that he plans to appeal his case.

Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is a second-degree felony punishable by 25-99 years of confinement. 

To read the details on the entire trial (four stories), click here.